The present invention relates generally to display systems, and more particularly to a miniature display system in which a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) spatial light modulator is positioned directly on top of and controlled by a specifically written (i.e. addressed) very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) silicon integrated circuit (IC) backplane.
In the field of miniature displays and especially those using spatial light modulators, it is well known that stationary and moving images, either monochrome or color, may be sampled and both color separated and gray scale separated. These separations may be digitized forming digitized images which correspond to the given images. These digitized images are used by devices in this field to create visual images that can be used for a direct visual display, a projected display, a printer device, or for driving other devices that use visual images as their input. The present invention provides a novel spatial light modulator using novel data sequencing schemes which may be used to produce a direct view miniature display or a projected display, or for driving a printer or other devices that use visual images as their input.
One of the ongoing challenges facing the manufacture of miniature display systems is providing smaller and smaller displays with higher and higher resolution. The combination of these two factors dictates smaller and smaller pixel sizes in order to achieve smaller displays with higher resolution. Miniature displays which are small enough to be mounted onto a helmet or displays small enough to be supported by a pair of eyeglasses will find a wide variety of uses if they can provide adequate resolution and brightness in a small, low-power package at a low cost. Conventional display technologies such as CRTs are difficult to miniaturize and therefore do not hold much promise in this field. Alternatively, new displays based on VLSI integrated circuits are currently being developed. Examples of these miniature displays in the prior art include digital micromirror devices, active-matrix electroluminescent displays, and active-matrix liquid crystal displays. However, each of these prior art devices has significant limitations in resolution, brightness, compactness, lumination efficiency, or color capability. Furthermore, because of various physical restrictions on systems of these types, the smallest pixel pitch that to applicant's knowledge has been achievable thus far has been a pitch much greater than 10 microns. As will be seen hereinafter, the present invention provides a display capable of providing smaller pixels, for example with a pitch on the order of 10 microns or less, with higher resolution in a bright, full color capable display. As will also be seen, the present invention provides for unique data ordering schemes, and a unique method of illuminating the display, as well as other features which will become apparent.